Organic Fire Starter

ABSTRACT

A fire starter device manufactured from natural, organic components and designed for igniting combustible materials in wood stoves, fireplaces, firepits, and camp fires, or igniting charcoal briquettes. The device is moldable as it solidifies during the cooling of a slurry of coarsely ground pine cones and beeswax, soy wax, or a mixture of beeswax and soy wax. A cotton string coated with beeswax and inserted into the fire starter during the manufacturing process serves as the initial ignition point for the device. No petroleum products or derivatives of petroleum (paraffin) are used in the production of this fire starter. The components of this device are naturally occurring and renewable resources—pine cones and either beeswax, soy wax, or a blend of beeswax and soy wax. The burning of this device as an ignition source produces no noxious fumes, a pleasant odor, and minimal residue.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates to the manufacture of a fire starter fromnaturally occurring, nonpetroleum, components that when ignited willignite other combustible materials in wood stoves, fireplaces, firepits, camp fires, or barbecue pits.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Almost all commercially available fire starters utilize petroleum-basedliquids or solid fuels. Liquid fire starters are highly flammable,dangerous to use, and create noxious fumes. Solid fuel fire starterstypically use paraffin, a petroleum-based product, combined withsawdust, straw, or wood chips. Although less flammable than liquid fuelstarters, solid fire starters produce fumes recognized as harmful tohuman health and the environment.

Those few fire starters comprised of natural components and cited byU.S. patents utilize cotton, hemp, muslin, pine straw, or paper as thecombustible component of the device.

The fire starter described in this application utilizes non-homogeneouspine cones shreds as combustible material. The pine cone shreds areprincipally derived from pine cone scales and made heterogeneous in sizeand shape by a course grinding process. These non-homogeneous pine conesshreds collectively create a composite of combustible fragments with aspectrum of flammability and heat release. Thus, this fire starter burnswith a relatively uniform rate of heat production and an extendedduration of burn. This device is constituted of between 60 and 75percent by weight of a natural wax and, therefore, produces considerablymore heat during combustion than devices primarily composed of wood orpaper products. A wick coated with beeswax provides a method forignition that consumers can readily identify and are comfortable withusing.

The ideal fire starter would be manufactured from organic components, beeasily ignited, have a high heat of combustion, have a uniform burnrate, not pop or crackle during the burn, produce little smoke, continueburning under adverse environmental conditions, emit no noxious fumes,and leave little or no residue following burning. The fire starterdescribed in this application satisfies all of these criteria.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The fire starter described in this invention is formed by solidifying aslurry of pulverized pine cones and beeswax, soy wax, or a blend ofbeeswax and soy wax. During the solidification process a waxed cottonwick is added to serve as an initial ignition site. The wick is insertedinto the top surface of the device and is surrounded by heavily texturedprojections of wax coated, pine cone shreds that can serve as eitherinitial ignition sites or secondary ignition fronts. Upon ignition,burning of the pine cone shreds and the wax(es) produces an intense heatcapable of igniting other combustible materials. The size of the flameand the duration of burn are, in part, controlled by the overall sizeand shape of the device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the truncated cone embodiment of the firestarter.

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of the rectangular-solid embodiment of thefire starter.

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of the cylindrical embodiment of the firestarter.

FIG. 4 is a photograph of the truncated cone embodiment of the firestarter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

The fire starter is fabricated using a specific composition and producedin a particular shape. The ingredients in the device are pulverized pinecones and either beeswax, soy wax, or a blend of beeswax and soy wax.

The manufacture of the fire starter is as follows:

Step 1—oven drying pine cones to reduce the moisture content to below15% and to kill any insects in the pine cones.

Step 2—chipping the dried pine cones to reduce the size of the material.

Step 3—grinding the material created in Step 2 to create heterogeneouspine cone shreds.

Step 5—liquifying beeswax, soy wax, or a blend of beeswax and soy wax byheating to approximately 170 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 6—adding on a weight basis 25 to 40 percent pine cone shreds to a60 to 75 per cent beeswax, soy wax, or a blend of these waxes.

Step 7—mixing the components in Step 6 to create a slurry.

Step 8—pouring the slurry from Step 7 into to a pre-cooled, mold andrapidly solidifying the mixture to prevent differential settling of thecomponents.

Step 9—before solidification of the slurry, inserting a cotton wick,coated with beeswax, into the upper surface of the fire starter.

Step 10—extracting the solidified device from the mold.

The size and shape of the fire starter will affect the duration of theburn and intensity of the heat produced during the burn. A fire starteras described with a truncated cone, rectangular solid, or cylindricalform and a volume between 30 and 60 mL will be sufficient for most firestarter applications.

The purpose of using pre-cooled molds to rapidly solidify the suspensionis to prevent differential settling of the waxes from the less densepine cone shreds.

In application, a fire source such as a match or lighter is used tolight the waxed, cotton wick. After the wick is ignited the surroundingheavily textured pine cone shreds will ignite and serve as secondaryflame fronts. The fire starter will burn for 10 to 25 minutes dependingupon the size of the device and environmental conditions. The deviceproduces little smoke, minimal soot, emits no noxious fumes, and burnsdown to minimal residue. The amount of ash residue is dependent upon theintensity of the fire created in the process.

We claim:
 1. A fire starter, which is a manufactured article fabricatedfrom a composition comprised of pulverized dried pine cones and beeswax,soy wax, or a blend of beeswax and soy wax. A waxed cotton wick providesthe ignition site for the device. In the manufacturing process, driedpine cones are coarsely ground and mixed with liquified beeswax, soywax, or a blend of beeswax and soy wax to form a viscous, moldableslurry of non-homogeneous pine cone shreds. This slurry is poured into amold and rapidly cooled to preserve the shape of the mixture and preventdifferential settling of the component parts. A cotton wick, coated withbeeswax, is added to the molded shape during the later stages of thecooling process. The final composition of the fire starter is:pulverized pine cones in the range of 25 to 40 per cent by weight,beeswax, soy wax, or a blend of these waxes in the range of 60 to 75 percent by weight, and a wax coated cotton wick in the range of 0.2 to 0.5percent by weight.
 2. The fire starter of claim 1 wherein the imbeddedparticles are comprised of coarsely ground pine cones shreds.
 3. Thefire starter of claim 1 wherein the binding material is either beeswax,soy wax, or a blend of beeswax and soy wax.
 4. The fire starter of claim1 wherein the moldable forms are either: a) a truncated cone, b) arectangular solid, c) a cylinder, or d) other easily moldable shape. 5.The fire starter of claim 1 wherein the surfaces are highly textured andcomprised of wax coated, pine cone shreds.
 6. A process to manufacturethe fire starter of claim 1 comprising: a) drying pine cones, b)pulverizing the pine cones through chipping and grinding processes, c)liquifying by heat either beeswax, soy wax, or a blend of beeswax andsoy wax, d) mixing the liquified wax solution with a specific weight ofpulverized pine cone shreds to form a slurry, e) pouring the slurry intoa mold, f) rapidly cooling the mold during a solidification process, g)inserting a cotton wick, coated with beeswax during the solidificationof the slurry, and h) removing the device from the mold.